The Quest of Heroes (?)
by rlb190
Summary: Cecil and Lou Ellen have been friends ever since Cecil first came to camp. Lou Ellen doesn't mind his 'Jinx' nickname and Cecil doesn't mind her awkwardness. When suddenly given a chance to prove that they would be heroes, Cecil and Lou Ellen head out on a top-secret quest. Meanwhile, things are heating up for Hades' and Apollo's OTP... (Post BoO)
1. Chapter 1

"Cecil."

"Hm?"

"Cecil, get up."

"Mph." complained Cecil. He was too comfortable. He hadn't slept well last night at all, as he rarely did. His insomnia kept him up most nights, and when he finally fell asleep, you can bet that the last thing on his mind was waking up.

"Cecil, I swear to the gods, I'm going to kick your butt."

Cecil groaned into his pillow and lifted up his head. His mop of curly black hair was a complete wreck, more so then normal. He squinted, his vision clearing. "Are you Travis or Conner?" he mumbled stupidly. His eyes focused lazily on one of the co-head counsellors, who frowned. "Conner." He said. Cecil could tell that it was touchy subject, since Conner was the older one (or was he? Cecil could never remember).

"Okay, I get that you like sleeping in and all, but it's almost inspection." Conner climbed off the ladder as Cecil sat up, not wanting to leave the warmth of his bed just yet.

From across the room, the other head-counsellor, Travis, threw a pillow, which hit Cecil squarely in the face. "Hey, Jinx! Up and at 'em!"

Startled, Cecil went tumbling backwards off the top bunk with the pillow. He landed with a hard _thud_ on the wooden floor. The impact from him falling caused a series of chaotic chain reactions. A nearby bookcase tipped over, which fell onto the bunk next to Cecil's. That bunk broke down, leaving a clutter of wood all over the floor. Since no shoes were allowed in the cabin (only socks), a half-sibling of Cecil's got a splinter in her foot. Swearing loudly, she tripped over and dropped the basket of laundry she had been holding, and clothes were thrown all over the place. To make matter worse, she fell on someone else, who dropped what they were holding, and before anyone knew it, their one passable cabin was now, well, a wreck.

The campers began to argue. And shout, while a few simply tried to put the cabin back in order, a few others even took advantage of the chaos to steal someone stuff. A Roman son of Mercury who had been staying in the cabin looked distressed, obviously not used to such disorder. It was so loud… and then the cabin door swung open.

It was the cabin inspector, Nico diAngelo. His dark eyes widened at the cabin, his hand poised on the scroll. Everyone froze, holding their breath. He glanced around the room for a moment, and without looked down at his scroll, he checked something. Without saying a word,he backed away from the cabin.

The door slammed shut behind him. It was still extremely quiet. Cecil could swear that every single head in the room turned to him.

And all Hades broke loose.

"Look what you did, Jinx!"

"We're all going to be on dish duty for weeks!"

"Dude, I am so tired of taking cold showers! We're not going to be able to get a good spot!"

It went on and on. Cecil took the brunt of people's arguments, though others still argued with one another.

Cecil sighed into his pillow. It wasn't his fault! It was his stupid insomnia and his stupid top bunk… and the fact that he always seemed to screw things up. And he wondered why no one would sleep on the same bunk as him! Conner walked over to him and offered him his hand. Cecil took it and lifted himself off the ground. Everyone was too busy arguing with each other to notice.

"Don't take it too hard, kid. We were probably going to fail inspection anyways."

Cecil sighed, eyes downcast. "I should have been more careful." Conner shrugged. "What can you do? Things happen."

Cecil felt a little better at his comment.

"I bet everyone hates me, though." he said, eyes downcast. Conner smiled to himself. "Don't worry about it. They'll forget about this soon enough. Besides, I'm sure someone else with do something worse soon enough. My money's on the Mercury kid." He smirked.

Are you trying to steal my wallet or something?' Cecil asked suspiciously. Conner laughed. "You're in your pajamas dude, and if I wanted to, I could have already." Cecil smiled lightly. "Thanks." Conner winked. "No problem. Anyways, you'd better get your butt out of here before they notice you."

Cecil agreed with him and slipped around, grabbing a pair of jeans and a camp shirt, he changed undetected in the bathroom. He escaped out the window before his siblings murdered him, or each other.

He went on his way, still rubbing sleepiness out of his eyes. The sky was beautiful light pink color, like the color of salmon. Maybe a salmon color after a cat a have puked it up. He wondered briefly for a moment why the sky was the color of throw-up when someone called to him from across the camp.

"Yoo-hoo!" he turned around. It was Lou Ellen, a child of Hecate and the head counselor. She grinned at Cecil and waved as she raced across the open field where the cabins were. Cecil smiled. Lou Ellen was one of those happy-go-lucky people, and she was one of the only people at camp who actually liked Cecil. Another plus, she didn't groan when he walked into the room.

Cecil waved back at her. Distracted, Lou Ellen tripped and did a full scorpion, her foot touching the back of her head.

"Ow!" she exclaimed. Cecil winced and ran over to meet her hallway. Lou Ellen, while being a capable magic user, was in fact, a klutz. Unlike the other children of Hecate, she didn't inherit her mother's dark hair. Her hair was a light blonde, a huge cintrast to the rest of her cabin. She did, however, inherit her mother's green eyes. Cecil wondered why, if gods had no DNA, that their children could look the same as them.

He helped her up as she grinned, despite the grass stain on her face. "Thank you." She said politely, like he had just held the door open for her or something.

"How was your cabin inspection?" Lou Ellen asked. Cecil felt his lightened mood darken, his disposition going as grey as Athena's eyes. "Oh." Lou Ellen mumbled. She smiled again, trying to distract Cecil. "Ours went pretty well. Our cabin is actually just a mess; we just use The Mist to make it look spotless." Cecil grinned.

'Wish I could do that." Lou Ellen's eyes wiggled. "Just give me a call and I'll make sure your spot of the cabin is perfect!" Cecil smiled. "Thanks, Lou Ellen." She smiled back in her flustered, eccentric way and went on, joining Cecil as they walked towards the smell of breakfast.

Cecil could normally get pulled into Lou Ellen's endless chatter, as she had started to talk about the way she hit a tree during Capture the Flag on Friday night, but something just didn't seem right. They passed a fire blazing in the center of the camp, where a young girl tended to the flames. Had he ever seen her before?

"So then Miranda, the head counsellor of the Demter Cabin was all 'That's what you get for being stupid.' And I told her that she should take her flower power and shove it up her-,"

"Hey Lou Ellen?" Cecil asked. Lou Ellen nodded. "Yeah?"

"Can you head up without me? There's something I need to do." She nodded again. "Sure thing! See ya later!" she went off.

Cecil had stopped walking and looked around. The camp was quiet. It was strange that no one was walking around. Even the birds stopped chirping. Cecil walked up towards the girl who was tending to the fire.

"Um. Hi."

She turned and smiled at Cecil.

"Hello."

It smelled of smoke and roast marshmallows around her. She looked around eight or so, with mousy brown hair and warm, kind eyes.

"Um, what're you doing?"

She tilted her head. "Tending to the heath, of course, Cecil."

Cecil was taken aback. "How did you-?" The girl waved her hand. "You don't know. I'm Hestia, goddess of the home and hearth."

"Why are you here?" Cecil inquired from her. She smiled knowingly. "Most don't ask me that question, young one. I'm afraid I need your help."

Cecil felt a shiver run down his spine. "Y-you do? Why does a fancy goddess need my help?" She motioned for Cecil to come near to the fire. He obliged and went up close to the orange flames in the fire pit. Hestia poked at the fire with a long iron rod she had been holding.

"What do you see?" She asked him. Cecil looked at the fire. "Fire." He said simply. Hestia smiled patiently, like she had expected him to say that. "Look beneath the flames. Look with your eyes. Now what do you see?"

Cecil sighed and shrugged, then looked closer into the flames. He stared at the bright flames until they danced in his line of sight, forming pictures and faces of people who he couldn't make out.

"A man. Or god, I'm assuming. He's… he's a minor god. And he feels…" he felt a wave of emotion wash over him, like a tidal wave of fire. "Alone. Upset. He's angry about what happened to him. And he thinks he's found someone that he can use to do something. Something very bad." Cecil looked up, concerned, and locked eyes with Hestia.

"What was that?" Hesita didn't break eye contact. "A power of mine."

"Who was that more importantly?" Cecil asked. All he knew was that something extremely bad was going to happen and very soon.

"Priapus."

"Pria-what?" Cecil asked.

"Pri-a-pus." Hestia pronounced, like a mother explaining how to read. "While celebrating the anniversary of our victory over the Titans, the first time, our mother Rhea organized a party on Mount Ida on Crete. All gods and neutral Titans were invited, as well as many nymphs and satyrs." Cecil nodded, content around the calm goddess.

"I hardly attended parties, so I wandered out into the woods, and fell asleep. Priapus, a minor god of vegetation, found me sleeping and wanted to take advantage of me, per say." Cecil winced. Hestia put a hand on his shoulder and he instantly felt better, like this was the mother he had always been looking for.

"However, while he was approaching me, a donkey brayed out loudly. I woke up and ran. The other partying Olympians heard me and came to my aid. They then harshly beat and berated Priapus, and never invited him to their divine parties ever again. Afterwards, I was grateful and proclaimed the donkey my scared animal."

Cecil frowned. "So he got beat up by the other gods and he wanted to plan world domination?" Hestia sighed weakly, as if remembering herself.

"The war with Gaia awakened some feeling, I suppose. He was all for joining her side before she was defeated. He's already gathered up quite an army, as you can see."

Cecil nodded. There was fear in the pit of his gut. What did she want from him?

"Of course, the other gods have much to do with the aftermath of the war. Zeus is occupied with Apollo, your father, Cecil, I busy delivering souls to the underworld. Hades is doing both damage control and watching over his 'O-T-P' as he says."

"Who's the OTP?" Hestia shrugged. "His son and another. I'm not at whim to say."

"Okay, so?"

"This has to be kept on the down low. The gods can't have any more to do otherwise another feud will arise over it and we'll have a mess again. I need to go to his base scout out his armies. Perhaps you might save someone in the process." She hinted at. Cecil shook his head. "Why me? I always mess everything up."

"Exactly. You and Priapus share the same emotions. Perhaps you might be able to understand the reason for his hate."

"But… who's going? And who will know?"  
>Hestia stopped poking at the fire and put the iron rod down. "You will need to take two other people to make the number three. I can guess that one will be the Lou Ellen?"<p>

Cecil blushed. "Probably." Hestia smiled. "So another person will have to join you. The only people to know will be you three, myself, and your camp director."

"Mr. D?"

She shook her head. "Heyo!" came a voice behind the two of them.

"Gah!" Cecil jumped about three feet in the air. He was a facing a tall, blonde, good-looking teenager of 17 years or so. He was wearing jeans and a camp shirt with sunglasses hanging from the collar. "Apollo!?"

He waved his fingers. "Hey little nephew! My Dad figured this would be punishment enough, considering all the complaining Mr. D has been doing. Now he's off the hook and, here I am for the next 100 years or so!"

"You sound much more upbeat about this then you should be." Apollo winked. "Hey, sing-alongs, camp fires, and I get to watch over my OTP!"

"Is yours the same as Hades?"

"Yup."

"Oh."  
>Apollo laughed. "Think this is a cause for a poem! Ahem-,"<p>

"Of course, we would love to hear a poem Apollo, but I'm afraid Cecil has more pressing matters at the moment." Hestia interrupted politely. Cecil sighed to himself and smiled at Hestia who smiled back and winked at him.

"In any case, Apollo here will make sure that your absences will be covered up, and in case my brother finds out, I am prepared to take full responsibility."

"No one ever stays mad at you…" mumbled Apollo with some distain. Cecil finally took a step back. He put his hands in front of him like he needed to steady himself, well, because he did.

"Whoah whoah whoah! You think I'm just gonna drop everything and go on a top secret quest with a dangerously flustered daughter of Hecate and probably a stranger to spy on someone?!"

Apollo made a face like 'well yeah, whatever you say'. He shrugged "Basically yeah." Hestia turned towards Cecil, her brown eyes focusing on Cecil's. "We need your help."

Cecil pondered her proposal for a moment. He had a raging battle within himself in a matter of seconds, waves of emotion rolling through him.

"Well…" he grinned widely, his heart pumping. He smiled that little smile that made Apollo feel like he was up to something, as with all kids of Hermes.

"I'm in."

**XXXXXXX**

**So… hi there. I'm not sure why I wrote this… to deal with the feels I guess. What'd you guys think? Yay? Nay? Let me explain myself on some parts..**

**I ship Solangelo so hardcore.**

**If this gets good reviews, Leo is *probably* going to show up w/his new lady friend…**

**Cecil makes me think of Night Vale, a podcast that's amazing that you should listen to. It makes me think of black hair and brown eyes. Jeans and large hoodies too big for him.**

**Lou Ellen sounds like thin blonde hair, a tiny build, and green eyes. **

**I have NO idea who is gonna be going on the quest. Nico or Will? Maybe Travis/Conner/Katie/Miranda Gardner? Tell me what you think….?**

**Whelp, let's see what the heck happens.**

**Thanks for reading! Review maybe? :D**

**Peace and Mist,**

**Rl190 (Rachel)**


	2. Chapter 2

"You agreed to what!?" Lou Ellen exclaimed, her voice going an octave higher than usual. Cecil looked around nervously, holding his finger to his lips. There were no kids around, most of them eating breakfast in the Mess Hall.

"Shhh!"

Lou Ellen looked around nervously as well, then grabbed Cecil's arm tightly, practically dragging him towards the cabins.

"I can't believe you agreed to it! Why would you do such a thing?" Lou Ellen exclaimed loudly as they reached her cabin. She released Cecil's arm, ran up the stone steps, and rushed through the door, but then backed out again for a moment and jumped with her arm raised, touching the outer stone wall of the door before going back inside.

"Who was I to say no?" Cecil said, slightly louder now since they were alone, "A goddess was asking me for a favor. What would you have done?"

He stepped up onto stone steps, but didn't enter the cabin, remembering the rule about no opposite sex-non-sibling campers allowed in the same cabin alone. Lou Ellen had also thought of this, as she had left the door open.

"I would I have- oh I don't know!" Lou Ellen yelled, her voice sounding like it came from very far away. Cecil tried to look into the cabin, but it was so enchanted with Mist it just gave him a headache.

"So, are you going to come or not?" Cecil asked into the air, still trying to avoid looking into the enchanted cabin.

Lou Ellen suddenly appeared, peeking her head out of the cabin and tossing Cecil a blue backpack. "Oh yeah, I'm coming."

Cecil fumbled, almost dropping her bag.

"Really?"

Lou Ellen walked out of the cabin and took her backpack from Cecil and shoved in a pair of socks, then zipped it up and handed it back to Cecil.

"Socks, I always forget socks. And of course I'm coming, dummy." Lou Ellen smiled at Cecil, who blushed. "Um, thanks. Really."

Lou Ellen shrugged, and then snapped her fingers before going back into her cabin. Cecil coughed awkwardly and looked around, away from her cabin, keeping one eye on the mess hall, being careful to make sure that no one was coming near.

Of course, as usual, he messed up.

"What are you guys going?"

"Holy Hera!" Cecil jumped about a foot in the air before turning slightly to the left, where just off the stone ledge, stood Nico Di Angelo.

He hadn't noticed the small, thin figure before, but he sure did now. Nico looked the same from when Cecil had last seen him, a few months ago from the fight with Mother Nature. The stress of having to shadow-travel vast distances every day gave Nico's skin a bluish tint. Cecil also couldn't help but notice that his cheekbones were more prominent, though his cheeks looked a little fuller then then had before, making his face more narrow the gaunt. He was wearing a black shirt and some kind of army green jacket was tied around his waist, revealing still-slightly swollen biceps that had scars running up and down them. Cecil briefly wondered what they were from, but even _looking_ at Nico made him nervous.

"Nowhere." Cecil said automatically. Nico, doing his whole 'intimidation thing', narrowed his eyes.

"You're lying."

"No, I'm not."

"Then what's with the backpack?"

"What backpack?"

_"__What backpack?"_

Cecil nervous shifted feet and coughed. From behind him, Lou Ellen emerged, now wearing a light blue shirt that read 'I'm with Phil Wrayson' on it, a black cardigan, and jeans.

"Hey are you ready to – holy!" Lou Ellen put a hand over her heart, and then did the three finger motion to protect against evil thingie that Cecil never really got.

Nico faced Lou Ellen, making eye contact. "Care to inform me where you're going?"

Lou Ellen bit her lower lip, and then burst out all in one sentence;

"CecilandiareonaquestfromHestiatogospyonthisguyPriapuswhotriedtotakeadavantgeofherandhewasallbutthurtbecausehecan'tpartywiththegodsanymoreandthewarawakenedsomeoldevilreallybadstuffsowehavetogoandstopitbutit'ssupposedtobesupersecretandi'mreallybadatkeepingsercertsandohmygodyou'reterrifying!" she ended, her voice squeaking

Cecil slapped his face.

Nico raised his eyebrows. "Is that all? Then I'm coming with you."

"Wait, what?" Lou Ellen asked. Nico shrugged, which really freaked Cecil out. Like, someone this insanely powerful and heroic and stuff doing a normal movement.

"You need a third member, and I owe Hestia a favor. I'll meet you in front of the camp in 15 minutes. If you leave without me I can hunt you down."

He turned around and waved a little goodbye before walking off, leaving Lou Ellen and Cecil staring behind him.

"Gods." Lou Ellen muttered. "He's really hot."

"What?" Cecil asked. Lou Ellen blushed. "Nothing, let's go get your bag and be at the front of camp before he gets there. I'd hate to make him wait. He terrifies me."

"Speaking of waiting."

"Ah!" Cecil and Lou Ellen both jumped at the same time. Lou Ellen whipped around while Cecil out a hand over his heart. "I don't think I can keep doing this."

"Oh come one, you'll be fine." said a good-looking 17 year old with a pair of sunglasses dangling from his shirt collar.

"Apollo?" Lou Ellen asked.

He winked at her and at Cecil. "Hestia wanted me to give you guys a few things. Tokens, I guess, for assisting her."

"Not like we have a choice." Cecil muttered.

"What was that?"

"Nothing!"

Apollo chuckled. "I get it, kid. Here, for you Miss Lou Ellen."

Apollo tossed a thin, small leather bag to Lou Ellen, who just managed to catch it. She opened it and inspected its insides closely.

"Wait, is this?" Lou Ellen gasped in amazement.

"Aha and here I was, afraid I'd have to explain it. Smart girl. Be careful with it, okay?" Apollo grinned and Lou Ellen closed the pouch and tied it's long leather strings around her neck, not giving Cecil a chance to look inside.

"And for you, Cecil." Apollo tossed a bag midair, which Cecil also managed to catch without fumbling to much.

Cecil looked down at it. It looked like a normal bagpack, a black JansSport with nothing special at all about it. He unzipped it, and looked at the contents. Some clothes, a digital watch, and some other here and theres that didn't really interest him, including an eyeglasses case and some ambrosia in a plastic baggie and a canteen which he expected was filled with nectar.

"Um, thanks Apollo." Cecil offered.

"Thanks." Lou Ellen echoed Cecil shyly.

Apollo winked again, a trait of his, it seemed.

"No biggie, but you should be thanking Hestia not me. She had to run, but she wishes you all the best. Oh, and by the way, you have ten minutes to get to the camp entrance. I wouldn't keep him waiting."

Cecil blinked, and just as suddenly as he has appeared, Apollo was gone.

Cecil looked helplessly at his bag as a great feeling of unrest and uneasiness, a familiar feeling, arose in his stomach and throat.

"Well, let's go."

* * *

><p><strong>Aha I updated! What do you guys think? I decided that Nico would be the best bet for their trio, even though Will was originally apart of it. I just don't know enough about him in order to write him. Seriously, I 've got nothing. Oh, well.<strong>

**Oh, also! Cutie Pie Apparel is this really awesome online store and they have really great stuff that has now officially taken over my closet, so if you guys want 10% anything in the store, you can use the code ' redflowee02 ' to get 10% off anything in the store. Link is also on my profile! :3**

**www. cutiepieapparel. storenvy .com**

**Okay, so another chapter done, although this is long overdue. I hope you will all forgive on that. *heuhehehehe***

**As usual, thanks for reading, and don'****t forget to tell me what you think!**

**Peace and Mist,**

**rlb190**


End file.
